51 pages • 1 hour read
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Content Warning: This section of the guide includes depictions of racism, death, and animal cruelty.
Zia helps with cooking and tries to find Mando to discuss their escape from the ship. She hears they plan to take her and Mando to Boston and exhibit them to white citizens as “real Indians.” Zia feels determined to escape. She finds Mando stripped to the waist, boiling blubber. She only manages to talk to him after three days, when an accident happens to the mate. A commotion occurs after the mate fell into the whale’s skull while he was trying to cut it. They try to save him by cutting the whale’s skull but the liquid pours out, carrying the mate into the sea. He quickly disappears.
Following the accident, the children find a chance to escape. Mando is now a cabin boy and says the captain will sail for Boston the next day. Zia is determined to flee, even by swimming, and go to the island. Mando says the island is too far and wonders what she would do there. Zia suspects that Mando is thinking about going to Boston. He admits he considered it. Zia emphasizes they are “captives of the white men” (59), but Mando does not share her feelings.
By Scott O'Dell